The Visegrád Group is a cultural and political alliance of four Central European countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The alliance aims to advance co-operation in military, economic, cultural and energy affairs, and to further their integration with the EU. All four states are also members of the European Union (EU), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the Bucharest Nine (B9).
The Schengen Information System (SIS) is a governmental database maintained by the European Commission. The SIS is used by 31 European countries to find information about individuals and entities for the purposes of national security, border control and law enforcement since 2001. A second technical version of this system, SIS II, went live on 9 April 2013. An upgraded Schengen Information System entered into operation on 7 March 2023.
The presidency of the Council of the European Union is responsible for the functioning of the Council of the European Union, which is the co-legislator of the EU legislature alongside the European Parliament. It rotates among the member states of the EU every six months. The presidency is not an individual, but rather the position is held by a national government. It is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the "president of the European Union". The presidency's function is to chair meetings of the council, determine its agendas, set a work program and facilitate dialogue both at Council meetings and with other EU institutions. The presidency is currently, as of August 2023, held by Spain.
Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).
Donald Franciszek Tusk is a Polish politician who has served as leader of the Civic Platform party (PO) since 2003, with a break between 2014 and 2021, and who co-founded the party in 2001. He served as the Prime Minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014 and president of the European Council from 2014 to 2019. Tusk was also the president of the European People's Party (EPP) from 2019 to 2022.
An EU Battlegroup is a military unit adhering to the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) of the European Union (EU). Often based on contributions from a coalition of member states, each of the eighteen Battlegroups consists of a battalion-sized force reinforced with combat support elements. Two of the battlegroups were declared to be capable of being assembled for operational deployment at any one time.
The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) is an independent body of the European Union (EU) with juridical personality, established under the Treaty of Lisbon between 22 of the 27 states of the EU following the method of enhanced cooperation. It is based in Kirchberg, Luxembourg City alongside the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the European Court of Auditors (ECA).
Switzerland is not a member state of the European Union (EU). It is associated with the Union through a series of bilateral treaties in which Switzerland has adopted various provisions of European Union law in order to participate in the Union's single market, without joining as a member state. All but one of Switzerland's neighbouring countries are EU member states.
The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are party to the EU's founding treaties, and thereby subject to the privileges and obligations of membership. They have agreed by the treaties to share their own sovereignty through the institutions of the European Union in certain aspects of government. State governments must agree unanimously in the Council for the union to adopt some policies; for others, collective decisions are made by qualified majority voting. These obligations and sharing of sovereignty within the EU make it unique among international organisations, as it has established its own legal order which by the provisions of the founding treaties is both legally binding and supreme on all the member states. A founding principle of the union is subsidiarity, meaning that decisions are taken collectively if and only if they cannot realistically be taken individually.
Events from the year 1998 in the European Union.
Michael Spindelegger is an Austrian politician. He served in the cabinet of Chancellor Werner Faymann as foreign minister of Austria from 2008 to 2013 and as finance minister from 2013 to 2014; additionally, he held the office of vice-chancellor from 2011 to 2014. Spindelegger was also the leader of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) from 2011 to 2014. In August 2014 he unexpectedly resigned from all political positions. Since 2016, he has been serving as Director General of the Vienna-based International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).
The demographics of the European Union show a highly populated, culturally diverse union of 27 member states. As of 1 January 2023, the population of the EU is slightly over 448 million people.
Events in the year 1993 in the European Union.
Victor Negrescu is a Romanian politician of the Social Democratic Party. He is a Member of European Parliament and he was Minister Delegate for European Affairs in the government of Romania between 2017 and 2018. Since 2007, he is the president and national coordinator of the Romanian network of PES activists.
This is a list of events that took place in Europe in 2018.
Karl Nehammer is an Austrian politician who is the 32nd and current chancellor of Austria since 6 December 2021. A member of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), he previously was Minister of the Interior from 2020 to 2021, general secretary of the ÖVP from 2018 to 2020, as well as a member of the National Council from 2017 to 2020. Nehammer assumed the chancellorship as the successor of Alexander Schallenberg, who resigned to return as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The European Youth Goals are a collection of 11 interlinked goals representing young people's vision for youth policy in the European Union (EU). The European Youth Goals were developed during the 6th cycle of the EU Youth Dialogue. The European Youth Goals were included in the EU Youth Strategy 2019–2027.
Bulgaria held the presidency of the Council of the European Union during the first half of 2018. The presidency was the second of three presidencies making up a presidency trio, which began with the presidency of Estonia, and was followed by that of Austria. It was the first time Bulgaria had held the presidency. The motto that was chosen for the presidency was "United we stand strong".
Estonia held the presidency of the Council of the European Union during the second half of 2017. The presidency was the first of three presidencies making up a presidency trio, followed by the presidency of Bulgaria and that of Austria. It was the first time Estonia had held the presidency. The motto that was chosen for the presidency was "Unity through balance".
Foreign ministers of EU states on the second day of an informal gathering in Vienna prior to the start of the presidency, 22 June 2018
Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz hosting the European College of Commissioners in Vienna, 6 July 2018
Kurz at the Subsidiarity Conference in Bregenz, Austria, in November
